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John Felix Anthony Cena, Jr. (born April 23, 1977 in West Newbury, Massachusetts), is an American professional wrestler and rap music artist who currently performs for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on the RAW brand.

Career

Early Career

Before his professional wrestling career, John Cena was a bodybuilder, played college football -- where he was a team captain and All-American center for Division III school Springfield College. While at Springfield, he earned a degree in exercise physiology *.

Cena first started training to become a wrestler in 2000 at the California-based Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) where he created the character, The Prototype. After UPW he was signed to a World Wrestling Entertainment developmental contract and assigned to "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). During his time in OVW he also appeared on the UPN reality show Manhunt under the pseudonym "Big Tim Kingman". On the show he was the "lead hunter" in a team of hunters going after contestant with paint ball guns. The show was made in association with WWE, however it was later revealed that a lot of the scenes of the show were re-shot to enhance the drama, contests were rigged to get rid of contestants and other contestants read from scripts. As a result of the controversy the WWE has never referenced the show or Cena's relation to it.

World Wrestling Entertainment

2002-2003
Cena's first televised WWE match was in answer to an open challenge by Kurt Angle on June 27, 2002 at the Allstate Arena in Chicago. Inspired by Vince McMahon's speech to WWE's rising stars, exhorting them to show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the legends, Cena took advantage of this opportunity. He almost beat Kurt Angle, kicking out of the Angle Slam and enduring the Ankle Lock submission hold, but ultimately losing to a hard amateur-style pin.

Cena played the role of a typical face, an underdog in each match. After losing with fellow face wrestler Billy Kidman in a tournament match for the WWE Tag Team Championships, Cena turned heel and blamed Kidman for the loss. Shortly after his heel turn, on a Halloween episode of SmackDown!, he performed a freestyle rap in a Vanilla Ice costume to Stephanie McMahon and his gimmick was changed to that of a white rapper. At first, this gimmick got Cena heel heat from the fans, but his frequent freestyle raps about other wrestlers helped to gain him a following. During his run as a heel, Cena feuded with the Undertaker and Chris Benoit and also got some backup from the Full Blooded Italians. One of Cena's first trademark symbols was a classic WWF logo (without the "F") with the slogan "Word Life".

Cena also feuded with Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. During that feud, he derived his signature finishing maneuver, the F-U, as a counterpart to Lesnar's similar F-5 move. Later, when Lesnar turned heel, they briefly joined forces. He would also feud with Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero before Cena turned face, betraying Lesnar and feuding with him again. Cena established his signature "you can't see me" catch phrase and hand gesture during this time as well. In a 2003 Survivor Series match, he was on a team led by Kurt Angle with Benoit, Bradshaw (later known as JBL) and Hardcore Holly against Lesnar, Big Show, Nathan Jones, Matt Morgan and A-Train. In the end, Cena hit the F-U on Big Show and got the final pin, leaving him and Benoit as the sole survivors. The two superstars ended their feud there, though they would later fight each other during Cena's run for the WWE United States Championship.

2004
At the start of 2004 Cena feuded with The Big Show, leading to a match at WrestleMania XX in which Cena won the United States Championship. Cena claimed the title, his first in WWE, by distracting the ref and using his brass knuckles on Big Show then hitting him with the F-U. In July he was stripped of the title by SmackDown! General Manager Kurt Angle, whom he had a contentious relationship with, for "attacking" him.

He won the title back at October's No Mercy after winning the final match of a Best-of-5 series against Booker T. His second reign was short-lived, however, as he lost the title to the debuting Carlito in the very next weeks SmackDown!.

During the feud with Carlito, Cena was (kayfabe) attacked in a Boston nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard, Jesús, which kept Cena from wrestling for about a month due to a kidney puncture. In actuality, this event was set up to allow Cena time off to film The Marine. Upon his return, Cena exacted revenge on Carlito in a SmackDown! match and won the U.S. title for a third time. During this reign he debuted his custom made spinner style title belt.

2005
At the 2005 Royal Rumble, Cena and Batista went over the top rope at the same time to end the match, prompting Vince McMahon to demand the match go into "sudden death", which Batista won after countering an F-U.

With Batista choosing to vie for the World Heavyweight Championshp at WrestleMania 21, SmackDown! held a tournament to determine Number 1 Contendorship for their WWE Championship, which wrapped up with Cena pinning Kurt Angle to win the WrestleMania match.

In the following weeks, Cena feuded with champion John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet, including losing his United States Championship to Cabinet member Orlando Jordan, who (with JBL) proceeded to "blow up" the custom "spinner-style" belt. It was during this feud that Cena first began referring to his fans as "Chain Gang Soldiers" (often shorted to just "Chain Gang").

On April 3, 2005 at WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles, Cena defeated JBL to win his first WWE Championship. As part of the storyline, he then had a custom WWE Championship belt made similar to his custom U.S. title belt, featuring a spinner-type WWE logo plate. Meanwhile, JBL (kayfabe) stole the original belt and claimed he was still WWE Champion.

Cena successfully defended his title against JBL in a bloody "I Quit" Match at Judgment Day in May when he forced JBL to quit by cornering him against a glass pane, and threatening to hit him with a tractor trailer's exhaust pipe. In the process Cena was able to reclaim the original title belt, though he continued to carry his version.

On the June 6 episode of WWE RAW, John Cena became the first wrestler drafted in the annual WWE Draft Lottery, when Eric Bischoff drafted him from SmackDown! to RAW. Upon going to RAW, Cena immediately entered a program with Chris Jericho and Christian which was established when Christian attacked Cena during Jericho's "Highlight Reel" interview segment, then Jericho turning on Cena in a tag-team match against Christian and Tyson Tomko. He went on to defeat Christian and Jericho in a Triple Threat match at Vengeance by knocking Jericho out of the ring and pinning Christian.

During this feud Cena made enemies with RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff with Bischoff vowing to make Cena's stint on RAW difficult and chosing Chris Jericho to take Cena's title from him. On July 25th Cena and Jericho competed in the first ever battle of the bands on RAW with Cena's "Chain Gang" competing against Jericho's Fozzy. Cena performed but Jericho refused, claiming the audience was biased against him and that Fozzy would not perform until the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view, however the performance never took place as Jericho ended up losing their match.

On August 22, Cena beat Jericho again, this time in a "You're Fired" match for the WWE Championship - despite the General Manager giving Cena a low-blow and handing a pair of brass knuckles to Jericho. After the match, Kurt Angle came to the ring and attacked Cena, with Bischoff revealing that Angle was the new number one contender for Cena's world title. After several weeks of feuding, both men faced off in the main event of Unforgiven, where Cena lost to Angle by disqualification after hitting him with the WWE title belt, meaning Cena would still be champion. They met again at the 2005 Survivor Series, with Cena picking up the win this time.

When Vince McMahon returned to RAW to put Bischoff on trial in December Cena made his opinion of Bischoff known and eventually helped Vince McMahon (kayfabe) fire Bischoff by delivering the F-U to the former RAW GM, effectively ending the hostilities he had with Bischoff.

2006
On January 8, 2006, at New Years Revolution, Cena successfully defended his WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match against Kane, Kurt Angle, Carlito, Chris Masters and Shawn Michaels. However, after the match, Vince McMahon announced that Cena was going to have to defend the WWE Championship again, this time against Edge, who was cashing in his previously earned Money in the Bank title shot. Edge delivered two spears to a tired Cena, pinning him in short order to win the WWE Championship and end Cena's championship reign at 280 days, matching that of previous champion JBL.

Three weeks, to the day, after losing the title Cena defeated Edge at the Royal Rumble to regain the WWE Championship. Cena went on to retain the WWE title at WrestleMania joining Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Diesel, Eddie Guerrero, and Yokozuna as the only people to retain a WWE World Championship at a WrestleMania. (Yokozuna retained against Lex Luger at WrestleMania X, but lost the title to Bret Hart in the main event of the show.) '' On the May 22, 2006 edition of RAW, Rob Van Dam informed Cena that he intended to cash in the Money in the Bank title match contract he won at WrestleMania at the upcoming Extreme Championship Wrestling One Night Stand pay-per-view event. Cena lost the title at the event when Edge appeared from under the ring and speared Cena through a table, setting him up for Van Dam's Five Star Frog Splash. With two referees "knocked out" (the first by Cena, the second by Edge) Paul Heyman ran down the entrance aisle and counted the three count giving Van Dam the win and the title. On the next nights RAW Paul Heyman announced that the title change was official, as the match was under "Extreme rules".

After this he would continue to feud with Edge, who won the WWE Championship in a Triple Threat match, over the title. This lead to Cena defeating Edge by disqualification at Saturday Night's Main Event.

Fan backlash

After the draft lottery which brought him to RAW, Cena's popularity with the fans slowly began to diminish. His first three biggest rivalries on the program were Christian, Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, all of whom had large cult followings. At SummerSlam 2005, when Cena defended the WWE Championship against Chris Jericho, chants of both "Let's go, Cena!" and "Let's go, Jericho!" were clearly audible, a sign that the fans were becoming divided over Cena. After this boos began to emerge during Cena's matches and promos.

Over time, the reactions towards Cena became more and more negative, especially during his feud with Kurt Angle. Despite Angle's best attempts to attain heel heat, the fans continued to cheer him and boo Cena. At New Year's Revolution, Cena successfully defended his title in an Elimination Chamber match, much to the displeasure of most of the crowd. The crowd then cheered for Edge when he emerged and won the title.

During this time WWE announcers, most notably Jim Ross, were forced to acknowledge the negative reactions Cena was getting and began to refer to him as a "controversial champion" saying that he was alienating some fans with his "unorthodox style". Jerry Lawler would often suggest that Cena was too young, edgy and original for the older audience to appreciate.

Cena continued to polarize the crowd leading up to WrestleMania 22, during which he was jeered during his main event match with Triple H. Cena was reported as being upset by fans' negativity, although he stated that the fans obviously had a choice in deciding whom they wanted to root for.

Parallels can be drawn between Cena's circumstances and those of Rocky Maivia upon his WWE debut who, despite being pushed as a face, was booed the more he tried to get the fans to side with him.

However, the crowd began to cheer Cena once again after Backlash, most notably when he began to side with the popular Shawn Michaels in matches against the Spirit Squad. After Cena stopped taking part in this angle and moved on to working against Rob Van Dam, there was once again a notable mixture of cheers and boos in most every arena visited, with some being more pro-Cena and some against him.

On June 11, however, he was met with his most hostile crowd yet when he faced off against Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand. Before his match, he threw his cap into the crowd, a signature antic of his, but the crowd threw it back towards the ring. After throwing his hat he did the same with his T-Shirt, which was also thrown back. Cena picked up the shirt and attempted to throw it into the crowd again, but again it sailed back into the ring. He persisted in throwing his shirt back into the crowd half a dozen times, but the crowd refused to accept it. The fans then threw rolls of toilet paper at Cena (a reference to the Puroresu tradition of covering main event wrestlers with streamers prior to matches), which lasted until seconds after the match had begun. As the match went on the fans chanted many derogatory things, including, "Fuck you, Cena," "Same old shit," "Cena swallows," and "You can't wrestle." When Cena attempted to play to the crowd by performing moves he was not known for, the crowd responded with a "You still suck" chant. One of the most notable anti-Cena actions was a large poster which appeared on screen many times that stated; "If Cena Wins, We Riot".

The next few nights, back on RAW, Cena was once again met with cheers, and he received a significant amount of cheers during his involvement in the premiere episode of ECW on Sci Fi (it should be noted that the ECW premiere was taped before SmackDown!, and the crowd were mostly WWE fans and not ECW fans as at One Night Stand). A later ECW episode, in which Cena did not appear, had a mixed audience chanting alternativley "We want Cena!" and "No we don't!" during the main event.

Outside of wrestling

Music

In addition to his time in the ring, Cena is a rap music artist. He performed his fifth WWE entrance song, "Basic Thugonomics," which was featured on the WWE soundtrack album WWE Originals. His track "Untouchables" was featured on Theme Addict, another WWE soundtrack album. His debut album, which he recorded alongside his cousin Tha Trademarc, You Can't See Me features his current entrance theme "My Time is Now". The first single from the You Can't See Me album was "Bad, Bad Man", a music video of which featured a parody of 1980s culture and the television show The A-Team. A second video was later made for the second single, "Right Now", and premiered on the August 8 edition of RAW. John Cena has worked with several personalities in the Hip-Hop industry, such as Freddie Foxx (Bumpy Knuckles), 7L, Esoteric, Murs (including a music video), E-40 and Chingo Bling. He and Method Man were also featured in SmackDown! magazine and MTV.com. Most recently, Cena and Tha Trademarc are featured on a track by The Perceptionists, "Champion Scratch." Cena has also performed on BBC Two's long running Top of the Pops, becoming the first professional wrestler to do so.

Film

WWE Films, a division of World Wrestling Entertainment which produces and finances motion pictures, produced Cena's first movie - The Marine. The Marine was directed by John Bonito, and stars Cena in the main role along with co-stars Robert Patrick and Kelly Carlson. WWE films has completed a deal with 20th Century Fox to distribute The Marine theatrically on September 8, 2006.

Fashion

Cena's attire in and out of the ring reflects the old school hip-hop culture that his character represents. He previously wore throwback jerseys, though now he generally wears WWE produced "Chain Gang" related merchandise. He has also worn a chain with a lock on it to the ring which was at times utilized as a weapon. This chain has now been replaced by an enormous, chromed and diamond studded "Chain Gang" spinner medallion which is very reminiscent of the ones worn by members of G-Unit.

When Cena was part of the SmackDown! brand, his apparel bearing the suggestive spoonerism "Ruck Fules" was censored when he wore it on camera. They were not censored by UPN, but by WWE to sell more shirts under the premise that it was "too hot for TV."

Guest appearances

Prior to his WWE debut, Cena made a guest appearance on the Internet stream show Go Sick in 2001 as Bruebaker, an angry, cursing wrestler.

During his WWE career, Cena has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live numerous times.

Other appearances have included Fuse's Daily Download, Fox Sports Net's Best Damn Sports Show Period and G4's Training Camp (with Shelton Benjamin) and a stint as a guest judge on Nashville Star. He's also served as a co-presenter, with Hulk Hogan, at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards.

Personal information

Cena was inspired to get into professional wrestling by Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold & The Rock and good friends with fellow WWE Superstar Randy Orton Cena's father, John Cena Sr., works in the pro wrestling business as New England independent wrestling announcer and manager Johnny Fabulous. He is second eldest of five brothers. His brothers are Dan, Matt, Steve and Sean. [http://sports.ign.com/articles/607/607819p2.html.

Cena is known to be a fan of cartoons, he also mentioned on "5 Questions" that his favorite animated movie was the Fist of the North Star anime film.

In Wrestling

  • Finishing and signature moves

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "John Cena".

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